Inflation Targeting in New Zealand: Experience and Practice

Does the practice of inflation targteting reflect sound economic principles? Certainly, the inflation-targeting regime in New-Zealand has been subject to considerable academic scrutiny along these lines. I suggest, however, that some other questions are more interesting for today's discussion. Have we made progress in the practice of monetary policy? Have we learned anything about inflation targeting along the way? And what is the way forward? I'm going to use these questions to define the main themes of my address. I will argue that an inflation-targeting framework is not the same as a day-to-day policy for inflation-targeting.